Style, you
either have it or you
don't. And if you have it, you have it
all the time.The Lovable Rogue
by Tux Toledo
Style,
you either have it or you don't, and if you have it you have it all the
time. It doesn't matter what you're doing or where you are,
if you have style, you have style. It's as simple as
that. Take horse racing, for example. While many
punters wear gym shoes and dungarees to the track, I typically attend
in nothing less than an impeccably tailored double-breasted suit
accented with a foulard tie made of Italian silk so smooth you could
skate on it. If I'm feeling particularly sporting, I'll
replace the foulard with one of Milan's more adventurous
cravats. The deciding factor is always the stature of the
track. The more elegant the venue, the more conservative my
attire.
Today I was at Golden Gate Fields and was dressed rather sportingly in
a double-breasted blue blazer, off-white, cotton slacks, ultra-soft
brown loafers, all topped off with a light gray fedora. That
should tell you something about the stature of the track.
Golden Gate Fields is not exactly the most glamorous place to view
equestrian competition; it's not a dump but it's not Churchill
Downs. The people are urban not urbane, the grass mowed not
manicured. It's a pure venue for horse racing, an aging track
next to the San Francisco Bay on a piece of land real estate developers
would kill for. My bet is one day they will.
My other bet was on the long shot of the final race. She was
a scraggly hag that looked like the kind of horse that was once used to
pull milk carts. But I had good information that she was
faster than she looked.
The class of the field was Family Affair, the sure-thing favorite that
the pundits thought just might be good enough for the Kentucky
Derby. High expectations, indeed! He certainly
oozed the kind of arrogance that gives winning racehorses their
championship looks. But oozing arrogance was not good enough
for me. A good tip was much better.
From the beginning my hag ran neck and neck with Family
Affair. In the end she nipped the favorite by a
nose. This heart-stopping result was not met with widespread
approval. The loss of a sure thing seldom is. But
in horse racing there are no sure things - only favorites and long
shots. And I'll give you some valuable advice about long
shots: never bet on one unless you're lucky or you know what
you're doing. I may not always know what I'm doing but I'm
always lucky, lucky enough to have the right information at the right
time. I suppose that's why San Francisco's Upper Crust
frequently call on me to get them out of trouble. There are
worse occupations.
© 2008 David Biagini